POPULAR HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. Dread of invasion.-Defence of the country by foreign troops.-French fleet at Minorca, -Admiral Byng.-Surrender of St. Philip, in Minorca.-Popular rage against Byng. -Commencement of the Seven Years' War.-Successes of Frederick of Prussia. Household of George, prince of Wales.--Changes of Ministry.-Newcastle retires.-Administration of the duke of Devonshire and Mr. Pitt.-Altered tone of the king's speech.-Militia Bill.-Foreign troops sent home.-Subsidy to the king of Prussia.Trial of Byng.-His execution.-Pitt and Legge dismissed from their employments. -National feeling.-Coalition of Newcastle and Pitt.-Affairs of India.-Black Hole at Calcutta. Surajah Dowlah occupies Calcutta. It is re-taken by Clive and Watson.-The battle of Plassey.-Sarajah Dowlah deposed and killed.-Meer Jaffier Subahdar of Bengal.-Establishment of the British ascendancy in India. IN a fortnight after his dismissal from office, Pitt, from his place in parliament, sent forth a voice whose echoes would be heard throughout the land. The nation was dreading a French invasion -sullenly trembling at the possible consequences of an assault upon the capital, and without confidence in the government to which the public defence was entrusted. Pitt seconded the motion of the Secretary of War, for an army of thirty-four thousand men, being an increase of fifteen thousand. He had wanted even a larger increase in the previous year. The king's speech of the preceding Session had lulled the nation into a fallacious dream of repose. "He wanted to call this country out of that enervate state, that twenty thousand men from France could shake it. The maxims of our government were degenerated, not our natives." An opinion had gone forth, which in 1757 was embodied in a book of extraordinary popularity, alluded to by Cowper: "The inestimable Estimate of Brown Rose like a paper-kite, and charm'd the town.' The nation was told, "We are rolling to the brink of a precipice that must destroy us." Effeminacy, Vanity, Luxury, Rapacity "Table Talk." "Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times," ed. 1758, p. 13. universally prevailed. Religion was despised. The principle of honour was lost or totally corrupted. The national capacity was lowered. The national spirit of defence was impaired. There were no better fighting men upon earth than the common people of England; but in the better sort there was "such a general defect in the spirit of Defence as would alarm any people who were not lost to all sense of danger." The danger was from an outward enemy. "The French, in land armies, are far our superiors. They are making large and dreadful strides towards us in naval power. . Should the French possess themselves of North America, whạt eye can be so weak as not to see the consequence? Must not a naval power come down upon us, equal, if not superior, to our own?"† A diminished population had accompanied increasing commerce. Excess of trade and overflow of wealth had impaired our bodily strength. It is easy to detect the fallacies of this course of reasoning; but there can be little doubt that the nation required to be roused from its lethargy. Happily there was a man capable of rousing it. Pitt, in his speech of the 5th of December, had expressed his earnest wish to "see that breed restored, which under our old principles had carried our glory so high." The king, on the 23rd of March, announced the probability of an invasion, and informed the Houses that he had made a requisition for a body of Hessian troops, in pursuance of the treaty recently concluded. Both Houses acknowledged with gratitude his majesty's care for the national defence. On the 29th of March, Mr. Fox moved, "that an humble Address be presented to his majesty, that, for the more effectual defence of this island, and for the better security of the religion and liberties of his subjects, against the threatened attacks by a foreign enemy, he would be graciously pleased to order twelve battalions of his electoral troops, together with the usual detachment of artillery, to be forthwith brought into this kingdom." The Address was voted by the large ministerial, majority; but not without strong dissatisfaction. That State alone, exclaimed Pitt, is a sovereign State," quis suis stat viribus, non alieno pendet arbitrio —which stands by its own strength, not by the help of another country. The Hanoverians and Hessians came, and were encamped in various parts of the kingdom, Yet the common people of England were ready to deserve the eu logium of Brown as to their capacity for fighting. They enlisted freely, when called upon. Hogarth's print of the recruit who want ed to add “a cubit to his stature" is an evidence of this disposi tion. Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times," ed. 1758, p. 89. ↑ Ibid., p. 144. Ibid., p. 189. For half a century Great Britain had held possession of the island of Minorca, which general Stanhope and admiral Leake had conquered during the palmy time of the War of the Succession. Port-Mahon, the best harbour of the Mediterranean, was thought a more important British possession even than Gibraltar. The English ministers had received intimation very early in the spring of 1756, that a formidable expedition was in preparation at Toulon, not provisioned for a long voyage. They shut their eyes to the exposed state of the island that lay within a few days' sail from the shores of Provence. The defence of Port-Mahon was entrusted to a small garrison, commanded by an aged and infirm general. The government was at last alarmed. They dispatched admiral Byng (son of lord Torrington, the admiral Byng of queen Anne's time,) with ten ships, from Spithead, on the 7th of April. On the 10th of April, the French fleet, of twelve ships of the line, sailed from Toulon, with transports, having sixteen thousand troops on board. They were off the coast of Minorca on the 18th, and began to disembark at the port of Ciudadella. The only chance of defence against such an armament was in the strong castle of St. Philip. General Blakeney got together between two and three thousand troops, the officers of the English regiments being, for the most part, absent; and he prepared for resistance. The natural and artificial strength of the fortress prevented the French from proceeding in the siege without much cautious delay. On the 19th of May admiral Byng's fleet, having been joined by two more men-ofwar, arrived within a view of St. Philip, whilst the batteries of the French were carrying on their fire against the fort, where the flag of England was still flying. Byng, who had touched at Gibraltar, had written home to explain that he could obtain no necessaries at that station; that the place was so neglected that he was unable to clean the foul ships with which he had sailed from England; and that if he had been sent earlier he might have been able to have prevented the landing of the French in Minorca, whereas it was now very doubtful whether any good could arise from an attempt to reinforce the garrison. This was something like an anticipation of failure, with an indication of the neglect which made success difficult. On the 21st of May, De la Galissonnière, the French admiral, bore down upon the British fleet. Byng did not engage with that alacrity which the naval traditions of our country point out as the first duty of an admiral, even with a doubtful advantage. Rear-admiral West, on the contrary, with his portion of the squadron, had attacked with impetuosity, and had driven some of the French vessels out of their line of battle. Byng was scarcely en gaged, except at the beginning of the action, when his own ship, being damaged in the rigging, became for a short time unmanage able. He hesitated about advancing, for fear of breaking his line. De la Galissonnière leisurely retired. Byng called a council of war; represented that he was inferior to the enemy in number of men and weight of metal, and proposed to return to Gibraltar. The council agreed to the proposal. The admiral sent home his dispatches; and on the 16th of June, sir Edward Hawke and admiral Saunders were ordered to supersede Byng and his second in command. The unfortunate admiral was taken home under arrest; and was committed as a prisoner to an apartment in Greenwich Hospital. Admiral West was received with favour at St. James's. After a defence as resolute as it was possible to make against an overwhelming force, St. Philip was surrendered, after an assault on the 27th of June headed by the duke de Richelieu. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and were conveyed to Gibraltar. A tempest of popular fury had arisen, such as had rarely been witnessed in England. The news of Byng's return to Gibraltar, without having attempted to relieve the garrison in St. Philip, first came to London through the French admiral's dispatch to his government. "It is necessary," says Walpole, "to be well acquainted with the disposition of a free, proud, fickle, and violent people, before one can conceive the indignation occasioned by this intelligence." "But when Byng's own dispatch came, in which he assumed the triumphant tone of a man who had done his duty, his effigy was burnt in all the great towns. Every ballad-singer had a ditty in which he was execrated. When he arrived at Portsmouth he was saved with difficulty from being torn in pieces by the mob. A chap-book related " A Rueful Story, by a broken-hearted sailor." A coarse print exhibited Byng hanging in chains. A medal was struck, having a figure of the admiral, with the inscription. "Was Minorca sold for French gold?" Addresses went up to the throne from London, and from almost every county and city, calling for inquiry and signal punishment. To the Address of the City, the king was made to pledge his royal word that he would save no delinquent from justice. Newcastle, "with a volubility of timorous folly, when a deputation from the City had made representations to him against the admiral, blurted out, 'Oh! indeed he shall be tried immediately-he shall be hanged directly."" The fate of the unhappy man was not determined until the spring of the following year. In closing the Session of Parliament on the 27th of May, the |